Another Life
by shells33
Summary: AU story, What if Sirius had take Harry away and raised him on his own? How would things be different?


Okay, this is my first attempt at fanfiction, so... not only do you have to REVIEW, you also must include advice, hints, etc.. Actually, anything you have to say would be appreciated.

The idea here is to have multiple chapters, however all attempts keep dying off, so I'm beginning to think that I'll need a direction for this plot to go in. Again, advise appreciated. 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

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Chapter 1: Raising Harry

Sirius almost despaired when he arrived at James's house, with the glowing dark mark hovering over the smoking remains. He was too late. Again. He'd had a feeling that something wasn't quite right, then about an hour ago all the pieces had fallen into place in his mind. He'd gone to Peter's immediately, vainly hopeing that his fears would not be justified, but Peter hadn't been there. So he'd come to Godric's Hollow, knowing that he wouldn't be able to find the Potter's house because of the secret keeper spell, but hoping that he would find something to disprove his fear. That Peter was a traitor. That was almost too hard to stomach. Being betrayed by one of your best friends. And who knew how many others playing that same double game.

He was jerked out of his despair by a thin wailing sound coming from the ruined house. Impossible! Voldemort would never leave anyone alive! And yet he ran up the hill towards that thin ray of hope that had just opened up for him. 

Harry quieted as his godfather picked him up. 

"Hush, hush little one. You're safe now. I promise. I'll keep you safe from everything." Sirius murmured to him. 

As he gathered all of Harry's things that he could find, Sirius thought through his options. Nobody knew that he wasn't James's secret-keeper, so most of his options would lead him into the arms of the law, and they would send Harry where would they send Harry? Somewhere obvious, where the Dark Lord would just track him down again. And he couldn't go to Moony. Remus would just report him to Dumbledore.

So the answer was obvious. They had to go into hiding. But the real question was where. Enough time to worry about that later, right now he had to get away.

"All right there, little fellow?" He asked the gurgling infant in his arms. "We're going to start a whole new life for ourselves. Any idea where to go first?" Harry waved his arms in the air and giggled. Sirius grinned, "Well then I guess our first stop will be London. At least I know my way around there, and we'll be able to disappear into the crowds." And with that he tightened his grip on baby Harry, the knapsack he had filled with baby supplies, and his wand, and apparated away. Just missing Hagrid's arrival and frantic search for the Boy Who Lived.

***

"Not again!" Sirius practically howled when he walked into the living room where Harry was supposedly taking a nap. The cause of Sirius's frustration would be immediately apparent to any observing the scene. Actually, any invisible observer would probably be cracking up, and unable to breathe for the next few minutes. Harry had been redecorating, and the sight that Sirius was met with explains perfectly why adults decorate children's rooms. 

The room was brightwell, suffice to say it was very bright. The walls were covered in what appeared to be giant splotches of pure color, with spots of carpet appearing everywhere (even mid-air). Cushions were flying around in great approximations of bludgers, and feathers drifted in currents, evidence of several mid-air collisions. Books quite happily defying gravity sat in their places on bookshelves attached to the ceiling, or upside down, and there was 3-year-old Harry, in the middle of it all, happily munching on some crackers and giggling at the antics of the various furniture swirling around the room.

"Hey kiddo, what are you doing?" Sirius asked as he tentatively sat down next to his Godson. Who knew what kinds of hazards were now hidden in the cushions? 

Harry laughed again before chirping "Playing!" and directed the flying furniture into another set of antics. 

Sirius grinned at the little boy, before gently telling him that he could play later in the afternoon, now it was naptime. After half and hour, 8 stories read, and 5 more cushion collisions later, Harry finally fell asleep on Sirius's lap.

Sirius sighed as he pulled out his wand and went about setting the room back to its previous state. He frowned as he removed the spell from the bookcases. That spell was far more complex than anything else Harry had done so far. As a matter of fact, now that Sirius thought about it, Harry had done far more magic in the past month alone than he had previously thought child magic was supposed to cover. 

Then again, what did he know about raising kids? He didn't have any siblings, nor did any of the Marauders. Other than the fact that children were sometimes able to perform spontaneous wand-less magic, and that they needed constant attention, everything else had been learned from experience. From raising Harry. 

Sirius watched his Godson sleep for a few minutes, before gently picking him up and placing him in the trundle bed in the corner of the room. Harry stirred a little as he was tucked in, but soon settled down again.

Outside on the porch (right outside Harry's window so that he could hear any sign of the boy waking up), he went back to the train of thought that had been interrupted by the redecorating scheme.

He needed to find a way back to civilization. This secluded valley had been perfect for the first few years or until the hunt for him and Harry had died down. But now Harry needed to be around other children. And Sirius was definently going to need help as Harry grew older, especially if he continued to show this much magic. 

On the other hand, he had ventured out into the world twice in the past year, and both times there had been ample evidence that the search for the two of them was still as hot as ever. Ironically, there had been no mention of the Dark Lord. Maybe some sort of treaty had been worked out. If that was the case, he was in no way putting Harry in that sort of danger. He had promised James. 

Sirius again checked the wards both around the cottage, and the Ministry's spells around the valley. The valley had been a miraculous find. After 2 months of running just a half step ahead of the ministry, Sirius had come to the conclusion that neither the muggle world or the wizarding world was safe for them. 

In the 1830's the ministry had set up a set of valleys that were made un-plottable and almost impossible to find with complex illusion charms. These valleys had then been given to the Centaurs, mer-folk and Giants, in an attempt to negotiate treaties with the species. After the treaties had fallen through, the valleys had been forgotten about. But the spells and the monitoring stations were still there. After about 2 hours of searching in an obscure library Sirius had managed to find the location of 4 valleys. 1 was actually still being monitored, 2 had been converted into Dragon sanctuaries, but this last one had been pretty much abandoned. Sirius suspected that there were still mer-folk living in the rather large lake in the center of the valley, but there had been no evidence either way on that one. 

Meanwhile, the valley had been the perfect sanctuary for them, but Harry was getting older. Besides, Sirius was beginning to think longingly of day care centers. Get Harry to socialize with other children, AND not have to clean up after him! 

Sudden laughter form the other side of the house startled Sirius out of the daze he had fallen into. Crap! How had the little minx managed to get past him? Besides, he had only been asleep for 2 hours!?! There was no way Sirius could manage to hope that Harry had been asleep for the entire time. What had the kid gotten into now?

***

Harry smiled to himself as Padfoot walked out on to the porch. Hah! It was the perfect chance to excape and go exploring. Sirius always watched him carefully whenever he was out of the house. Even when he wasn't there Harry could feel the monitoring spells. Harry waited until Sirius had settled down, then concentrated. Finding that familiar spot within, he told it what he wanted. Moments later a light silence spell was in place in the room. He got out of the bed, and headed towards the back of the cottage. Grabbing the stick he had found a couple months ago, he ran down towards the lake. He and Padfoot had gone on a hike yesterday, and Harry had noticed someone's head sticking out of the lake. It had disappeared moments later, but Harry was sure of what he had seen. There was another kid in the valley. Or, at least, there was someone who was only slightly larger than Harry.

Once he arrived at the lake (only down a small hill from the cottage) he ducked behind a large boulder so that Padfoot wouldn't be able to spot him. Then he took off his shoes and shirt and put them with the stick on the grass. He didn't go far into the water, because he wasn't that good at swimming, and Sirius would be very upset at him if he went any deeper. Besides which, he was a trifle afraid of the deep water; not that he would admit that to himself. 

Okay, so where could the kid have gone? There weren't any other houses in the valley, Harry knew that much. But then where was the kid from? Harry decided to start checking all the good hiding places in the shallows. Hey, this could be really fun!

Harry proceeded to splash and play in the shallows. Making a large mess of himself in good childish fashion. He did remember to look for other people though. Just in his own fashion, and using extremely 3-year-old logic, after all, they could have hid themselves under that rock. Maybe, if they shrunk themselves, and didn't mind being crushed under water. Hey, it was a real possibility, and so Harry made sure to check it and every one like it. Unfortunately, the local wildlife didn't like this idea as much as Harry did.

Ugh, little kid playing again A voice hissed from a large clump of waterweeds. One would think that children never slept! 

Harry nearly jumped out of the water. He was absolutely positive that there was nobody near. He had just searched this entire area. "Hello? Who said that?" 

What? Now there's more mer-babies here? Great, just great. Just what I wanted, more kids yelling and making an incomprehensible ruckus. Oooh, long word, maybe mom was right about this vocabulary thing. 

The snake who had been comfortably taking a nap in the reeds, was now wide awake, and getting sidetracked by a new channel of thought. Harry, on the other hand wasn't doing much better with his analysis of the situation. 

Hah! So that explained the person in the water. Mystery solved, it had been a mer-person. Siri' had talked about them the other day on the hike. Come to think about it, that had been why Harry had been looking at the lake in the first place. Mer-people were people who livedunderwater. And, well, Sirius had mentioned something about, about, oh! They could swim really really good, and they had a different type of magic. See, he had been listening. Only he got the feeling he had missed a lot of the intended lesson. That's okay though, he could always ask again. OR, he could ask the mysterious unidentified person whom he was speaking to. Obviously they knew what they were talking about.

Hello? Harry asked, and then more boldly, What do you know about mer-people? Do they really live in this lake? Do they have kids? Did you think that I was one? Cause I'm not, I'm a human. Are you a mer-person? Where are you hiding? Why are you hiding? Do you-

Harry was really just getting started when the voice interrupted him. Enough, enough, it's obvious you're a human, only humans ask so many questions. What I want to know is how you can talk to me. The sibilant voice stated. (NOT a mer-person, a human. Oh, shit, what did mom tell me about humans? I can't remember. Uh) I've never heard about a human who could actually talk. 

Now this really bewildered Harry. Of course humans could talk. He talked to Siri' all the time, didn't he? But then, there weren't any other people in the valley. So, maybe the mysterious person had never met a human before. That would explain it.

Of course I can talk. Doesn't everybody talk? 

Oh. Well, that would definitely explain it. Everybody talked, now she felt really dumb. I guess so. I never really thought about it. 

Everybody I know can talk. 

True. 

Wait a moment! If you're not a human, and you're not a mer-person, then what are you? Harry spoke before he thought about it. Did he really want the answer to this one?

I, I uh, I-don't-really-know The snake blurted out.

Harry frowned. You don't know what you are? 

If snakes could blush, this one would have been bright crimson red. Unwinding herself from the waterweeds, she explained, My parents are Basilisks, and they were hatched under frogs. Or something like that, but I wasn't, I was hatched like any snake, and mom says that I' m not a real Basilisk, but I think I'm just as good as her, so there! 

Harry took out the only thing he'd really understood of the whole thing, and asked, So you're a snake? 

A Basilisk. Basilisks are better than just any old snake. 

Oh. Why are Basilisks better? 

'Cause we can petrify people, and we're bigger, and live longer. And, umm, well, we're just better. 

What's petrify mean? Harry inquired. This conversation seemed to be going quite well. At least this person seemed willing to answer his questions.

I don't really know. But mom keeps threatening to petrify me if I try to take over her territory. Least, I think that's what she's threatening me with. Mom's got a bit of a lisp. The young Basilisk explained confidentially. 

The conversation continued on, covering such diverse topics as why adults were obsessed with cleanliness, and the horror of actually falling asleep during nap-time. Moving on to the absurdness of the tiny little golden birds that lived in the north section of the valley which Kari (our friendly young Basilisk) had attempted to capture many times and which Harry and Siri' had been previously un-aware of.

After awhile they headed up towards the house so Harry could give the grand tour. It was only when they reached the back door that Harry recognised his error.

Oh, no!

Kari, who had been in the middle of a description of the joys of swimming, and why Harry should learn to swim, was a trifle confused. What's wrong with asking Siri' to teach you to swim? Dosen't he know how?

No! I mean, yes, Siri' can swim, but he's asleep right now, and I'm supposed to be napping! If he finds out I snuck out he'll put even more gaurds on me next nap-time, and I'll never get to explore!

Oh. That sounds a lot like my mom. There was a pause as both thought over the possibilities of overprotective adults. Then, I've got it! Kari hissed jubuliantly. You can say that you sleep-walked out here, and that I was trying to wake you up before you walked right into the lake!

Harry giggled at the idea of trying to explain to Siri' exactly how he had managed to navigate the stairs and the door, not to mention the low stone wall behind the house. Then came the inevietable sounds of Sirius waking up to find Harry not in his cot, and the panicked locating and tracing spells that sought Harry out.

Harry giggled as a blue bubble raced towards them, one of Siri's more powerful locating spells to find him this fast. Harry reached out and poked the bubble with his stick. The stick didn't work quite as well as Siri's wand, but it would do. A drop of bright yellow magic enveloped the bubble, causing it to dissolve in a shower of sparks.

Harry giggled again at the light show. Siri never saw the colors that magic made, but he still seemed to sense them somehow. He came running out the back door a minute later, his hair still wild from his impromptu nap.

"Harry! How long have you been out of bed?" He questioned mock-sternly, as his eyes anxiously checked to make sure that Harry was alright. He froze when he saw the young Basilisk twined under Harry's shirt, with her head resting on his shoulder. 

Harry grinned and proceded to tell his godfather all about his new friend.

"I got bored taking a nap, so I went down to the lake and met Kari. Isn't she cool? She's a totally new type of snake, her parents are Basilisks, but she's not really, cause she wasn't hatched under a toad, and guess what Siri, she can see magic too, but not as good as I can, and she can turn people into stone when she wants to, and-" Harry stopped abruptly when he noticed that Padfoot wasn't as excited about this as he was. He blinked innocently up at his godfather, not noticing how close Sirius was to having a heart-attack.

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